Shadows and Melodies
by Blood Shinobi
Summary: Tayuya has left the Sound Village. She breaks into the house of Shikamaru, and both of them recognize each other from the past. Why did she leave the village, what's she doing in Konoha? Can Shikamaru somehow help her,even though she's an enemy? ShikaTayu
1. Chapter 1 An unexpected midnight visitor

**Story:** Tayuya has left the Sound Village. She breaks into the house of Shikamaru, and both of them recognize each other from the past. Why did she leave the village, what's she doing in Konoha? Can Shikamaru somehow help her,even though she's an enemy? ShikaTayu

**Disclaimer:** I never have and never will own the series of Naruto. The series and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto (God bless him).

**A/N:** Before we begin I would like to let you know a few basic things about the story and setting. I have always liked Shikamaru x Tayuya and I haven't seen many fanarts or fanfics about it. That's why I wanted to try and write one. The two main characters are Shikamaru and Tayuya. But many other characters will be involved as well. Eventually a few original characters will show up. The story takes place somewhere during part 2 in the manga/anime. Shikamaru is 15 years old, and Tayuya is 17. The story will contain a mix of drama, romance, action, suspense, horror and of course some comedy.

My English is good, but not perfect. So don't be too surprised if you see a few mistakes in the grammar. I do my best. Also, take note that Tayuya will swear a lot! It's part of her character.

**Shadows and Melodies**

Written by Blood Shinobi (I also sometimes go by the name of Blood Raven)

Chapter 1: An unexpected visitor

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It was in the middle of the night in Konoha, the Hidden Leaf village, and Nara Shikamaru's sleepiness manifested itself with a deep yawn. Cracking noises were heard from the joints in his weary limbs as he stretched and twisted them to ease himself of the stiffness in them. It had been a very long and troublesome day for him. Usually he would have spent the day like the rest of his free time by relaxing and going through life the lazy way by looking at clouds, play a game of chess with a friend or simply take a nap. Unfortunately the day had been more eventful than what he had wished for. 

The day had begun with him waking up extra early in order to teach a class of academy students for six hours on how to improve chakra control. The kids were very young and inexperienced, and had it hard in the beginning to understand their teacher's explanations and demonstrations. Immediately after the class was dismissed, Shikamaru barely got a chance to step outside the Academy to catch some refreshing air and get something to eat as he received an urgent mission from a Konoha messenger sent by the council. The urgent operation assigned him to travel to a nearby town in the Fire Country to investigate some reported trouble; apparently bandits had been causing trouble upon travellers coming to and from the village. He did more than he was asked to as he investigated the problem and dealt with it by fighting, and capturing a half a dozen of simple low life bandits with the help of his impressive array of jutsus and quick mind. Small groups of non-shinobis armed with simple weapons and no combat training were only a minimal threat for any skilled and experienced shinobi.

However, the day was not yet even half over for him. Due to shortage in available shinobis, it had taken longer than expected for backup to arrive and aid Shikamaru in moving the bandits to the nearest prison. There was not much he could do to pass his time, other than sit on a tree stump and keep watch over his prisoners who were hardly useful for being social, especially since most of them were unconscious. Those who were awake though constantly yelled at Shikmaru, telling him what a bastard he was, and that they would get their revenge on him as soon as they got free. Shikamaru however only ignored them as well as he could. The constant shouting and cursing prevented him from enjoying a moment of peaceful silence of looking at the white clouds in the sky. He could not even take a nap, in case any of the bandits would somehow break from their ropes. After what had seemed to be the longest afternoon ever, two other Leaf Chuunins had finally come to assist the young Nara.

After a long and tiresome walk back to his house, his shins ached from over work. Finally, after a lot of effort, he could call it a day go to sleep. It was in times like that, Shikamaru pondered why he had become a shinobi in the first place. He had only signed up at the academy so many years ago because his father wanted to, and not because he felt for it. Unlike the other kids, Shikamaru did not become a shinobi because he thought it would be a cool job that could give him a good chance to earn money, see the world, become famous and get lots of girls like some stereotype hero. Even today, after having been a Shinobi since he was twelve, he had it hard to answer his own question.

He dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the key leading to the front door of his parents' house. The lock clicked audibly and the door swung open. As soon as he stepped inside the dark house, his honed shinobi trained senses warned him that something was amiss. The temperature that enveloped him seemed almost glacial by comparison to the lukewarm night he had just exited. He flinched slightly as he heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the nearby kitchen. Since Shikamaru's parents were away on vacation, and he did not expect any company, it could only mean one thing.

_Someone is breaking into my house!_

Without a second's hesitation, Shikamaru pulled out a concealed kunai from behind his waist. Even when he was off duty as a shinobi and going out with his friends, he never left the house without at least one kunai. One could never be too careful. Creating as little noise as possible, he quietly approached the entrance to the kitchen where the sounds were coming from, and pressed his back up to the left side of the door frame. From the other side of the wall, Shikamaru could hear someone violently searching through drawers, cupboards and shelves without any care for the content at all, as several glasses and tableware items fell crashing to the floor. He carefully peeked around the corner, looking into the pitch black kitchen.

Only the large kitchen window that let in the dim moon light offered a vague light bluish brightness for illumination. His eyes saw the back and undefined outline of the intruder, but the lack of light made it hard for him to see any details. He could not even tell if it was a man or woman. He could rush in with his knife ready, but that could be risky, considering that he did not know if this person was a simple burglar or someone with shinobi training such as himself. Besides, Shikamaru disliked killing, and if possible he wanted to capture the intruder without spilling any blood for either of them. He holstered his kunai and put his hands together into his trademark hand seal.

_Kage __Kubi Shibari no jutsu! __(Shadow neck binding technique)_

The shadow around Shikamaru's feet grew and expanded itself in front of him, travelling along the floor, snaking its way around the corner of the door frame and towards the burglar's feet without making any sound at all. It latched itself around the feet, and then, the shadows quickly moved up along the body and manifested itself as two pairs of shadowy hands that coiled around the person's limbs and body like snakes. The black hands were flat and had no psychical shape, yet they felt very real and strong. Immediately the arms pinned the intruder frozen before there was a chance to escape. A low gasp of surprise was heard, followed by a more irritated grunt as the intruder tried to move his or her body.

_Kage kubi shibari… success! Now let's see who we have here… _

No matter the situation, Shikamaru always smiled every time he managed to capture an opponent with his famous clan shadow techniques. Not letting himself wait, he stepped inside the dark kitchen and flicked a button on the wall, turning on the lights in the ceiling. At first, the harsh light stung his eyes, and he squinted, gradually lifting his lids as his pupils adjusted to the amount of light entering them. When his vision finally adapted, the back of the burglar became a clearly defined shape.

Judging by seeing the person's slender, feminine shaped frame, long crimson hair tumbling down from the scalp all the way down to the waist, and wide hips, there was no doubt that the trespasser was a young girl in a similar size and age as him. She wore tight, black biker shorts and a more loose-fitting, light-grey, thin shirt. Shikamaru also noticed that beneath the grey shirt, she wore a second one, which was black instead and fit tightly against the skin of her body. A pair of black sleeves of the same material and tightness as her shorts and second shirt covered her arms from the wrists up to her elbows. Her feet were sheathed in standard dark blue sandals which gave a small hint that she was indeed a shinobi for it was the same type of sandals most shinobis had. Beneath her knees, her lower legs had been wrapped bandages for clothing.

Shikamaru frowned slightly in confusion. There was something familiar about this girl, and felt confident that he had seen her before. This was hardly the first time he had seen a red haired girl, although that silly looking black and round cap she wore on her head looked awfully familiar. Clearing his throat, he opened his mouth to start communicating with her and find out what was going on.

"Look, I don't know why you have broken into my house, but messing up my kitchen was a bad idea. I wanted nothing more than to jump straight into bed after a long days work. Now I've no choice but to escort you to the police station and clean the house."

He sighed heavily, crossing his arms while gazing around the messy kitchen. What he saw inspired a throbbing headache. Broken, spiky shards of glass pieces crumbled beneath the weight of his foot as he took a step closer towards her. The only response Shikamaru got from the girl was weak panting and grunting as she fought to move, but the shadow technique held her firmly in place. A slight dripping noise caught the attention of Shikamaru's ears. At the girl's feet, crimson drops were dripping down on the floor, forming into a tiny puddle where she was standing.

_She's hurt. Maybe she broke in here to get medical supplies?_

"You…! It can't be!" She whispered angrily back. He held his breath, taking his gaze from her feet to look at the back of her head once again. Even her voice sounded familiar to him. Still, he couldn't place where he had seen or heard her before.

"Save your energy. Now let's turn you around, eh? I want to see the face of the thief that breaks into my house!" Using his shadow technique, he manipulated the shadow arms around her body to force her to turn her 180 degrees around; her futile resistance was diminishing every moment, as all her struggling did was sap her remaining strength. As soon as the girl's face came into view in the light, Shikamaru's eyes widened and his mouth dropped; he knew this person! Instantly he grabbed his kunai again and went into a battle pose, ready to attack or defend if necessary. This was not a normal burglar.

_I can't believe she is alive! The last time I saw her she was crushed beneath a huge tree! What was her name again? It was mentioned a couple of times while we tried to get Sasuke back from those Sound nins. Tatuyu? Tuyaya?... _

His mind recalled backwards a couple of years ago, when he was thirteen years old, recently promoted to chuunin and assigned to pursue a four-man sound team that had ´captured´ Uchiha Sasuke to bring him to their master, the Sannin and leader of the Sound village, Orochimaru. The girl in front of him was part of that enemy team. He had fought her in mortal combat, and nearly lost his life. The battle had ended with Shikamaru receiving help from the one of the three sand siblings, Temari who quickly finished the enemy off. He had thought of his enemy to be dead ever since. Apparently he was wrong, as she stood in front of him, fully alive.

"Tayuya!?" He said her real name. Obviously she remembered who Shikamaru was as well, and she was definitely not happy to see him.

"I don't fucking believe it! There are thousands of houses in this damn village, and I had to pick the one YOU live in?!" She yelled furiously.

But something did not look right with Tayuya, for she did not look like a Sound shinobi performing an infiltration mission in the Leaf Village. Her skin and clothes were dirty and slightly torn, as if she had lived in the wild for quite some time. Her scarlet coloured hair was an unkempt, tousled mess. All of her bruises and cuts, both partially healed and fresh ones on her body told that she had been in plenty of fights in the last few days. She appeared to be somewhat malnourished, and the dark skin below her eyes belied the lack of sleep she had been getting. The cloth on the lower left side of her stomach was stained with fresh blood; the wound was still slowly oozing out blood that ran down along her shirt and trickled down onto the floor, creating a tiny puddle. It did not appear to be a life threatening wound but it looked serious enough to require treatment. She needed medical attention before she could be moved to the police station. He would have called for back up…if Tayuya hadn't ripped out the phone cord earlier.

_Why is she not using her curse seal? Both of us know it's powerful enough to break free from my technique. Doesn't she have it anymore? Something isn't right here… _

The questions just kept piling up in his head, but he could not work out an answer to any of the mysterious before him. Stepping sideways to one of the cabinets that Tayuya had not searched through, Shikamaru opened it and pulled out a white plastic bag with a red cross on it; a first aid kit. The sight of him showing it to her as if to taunt her only made Tayuya angrier as veins popped out inher temples and her face flushed a dangerous shade of red. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to lunge at Shikamaru and tear him apart with her hands and teeth.

"This is what you were looking for, right?" With his free hand, he held the kit up in front of him. "Setting you free from my technique is too risky, but I don't want you to bleed to death in my kitchen. Blood is very troublesome to clean up and you have messed up enough of my house already."

Just like all trained shinobis, Shikamaru knew the basics of first aid; such as how to treat wounds, splint broken limbs and other necessary things. It seemed risky to stand so close to an enemy, who he knew was highly skilled, also feeling odd that he must give a wounded enemy medical treatment. However, she was an enemy with possible vital information and thus she needed to be kept alive. Not taking his eyes off of her body, Shikamaru carefully walked closer to her. It felt like approaching a wounded, cornered, starving beast. Staring into her hazel eyes that were full of anger felt somewhat unpleasant, so he broke the eye contact by letting his gaze travel downwards along her body. What he saw made him hold his breath for a short moment.

Tayuya had…grown since the last time he saw her. She stood a few of inches taller than from their last encounter three years ago. He remembered her to be nearly flat-chested, but now she had curves that even rivalled his friend and team mate Ino. Her chest had grown enough to form an eye-appealing cleavage. The once girly appearance of her had changed into a more mature looking young woman. Still moving slowly, he kneeled down in front of her and placed his head at the same level as the bleeding wound on her torso. In the position he was in, he had a big disadvantage and needed to move quickly. The girl in front of him could be, and probably was full of tricks. Perhaps she was just waiting for him to get close and lower his guard before she could strike.

"I may not have any special training in how to interrogate prisoners, but why don't you tell me why you're here while I treat your wound?"

"Fuck you!" She spat out. Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. Just the answer he had expected from a hot headed, bad mouthed girl as Tayuya. It seemed her vocabulary and character hadn't changed much since they last met. Her body however…Nevertheless, he did not let her anger or her body distract him from doing his job. As a shinobi it was important to focus and not get sidetracked by simple things such as the beautiful girl he had his face almost pressed up against. He could feel the heat radiating off of her stomach and tried to close his eyes and clear his thoughts…but no such luck.

"Save your strength. You can't escape by cursing at me. You're wounded and I've to bandage you before I take you away for interrogation. That is all."

"Why don't you just slit my throat while you still have the chance!?"

"Is that what you want me to do? It seems you have forgotten. I don't hurt helpless women, especially not killing them. Even though you're an enemy of the Leaf village, I have to keep you alive. Consider yourself lucky for I'm not the type of shinobi who always tries to kill his opponent." Shikamaru hadn't changed much either; he still lived up to his views about hurting females.

"Hah! You don't have it in you, weakling!" She taunted him. This mediocre provocation might have affected other ninjas, but it elicited no angry response from Shikamaru.

"Taunt and yell at me as much as you like, I'm accustomed to it. I've received plenty of that today." Shikamaru was not the slightest bit affected by Tayuya's words. Having a strict mother who almost seemingly enjoyed scolding Shikamaru for the smallest things, as well as having a dominant female team mate had made Shikamaru almost automatically ignore women yelling at him.

Taking a deep breath, Shikamaru carefully lifted the lower part of her shirt up, revealing her bleeding injury. The sight of the gruesome wound might have caused weak hearted and squeamish people to faint or feel nauseous, but seeing blood and gore was nothing new to Shikamaru. After having spent some years as a shinobi, he had grown accustomed to what horrifying scenes and nightmares a battle could reveal. He felt nervous though, not only for being so close to a dangerous girl; his experience with applying first and medical treatment was rather small. Usually a trained medic did the job for him. Even though Tayuya was an enemy, he did not want to exacerbate the situation by screwing up what medical treatment he could provide.

"Let's do this then…This is going to sting." He whispered to her. Out from the first aid bag he extracted a small vial containing of disinfective liquid. Pouring the content of the bottle on a clean tissue, Shikamaru dabbed Tayuya's wound. As soon as the moist bacteria killing tissue touched the open wound, Tayuya hissed loudly and clenched her teeth together so hard that they almost cracked open.

"Damn you!" Her face grimaced, eyes shut tightly, fighting to not give into to the pain. With the other side of the tissue, Shikamaru cleaned and wiped away the blood before he put it down and took out a roll of white gauze bandages from the first aid bag. The bleeding had slowed down and he thought there was no need to stitch is up. He started wrapping the bandages several times around her slender waist. As the pain started to subside, Tayuya asked Shikamaru with a calmer yet still upset voice.

"Why…why are you treating me like this?" The way she said it, it felt like she was being tortured and humiliated at the same time.

"Don't think I'm doing it for you. I'm doing it for the sake of village. You're useless if you die. Alive, you may very well possess sensitive information important to my superiors, and I don't see any easy way of extracting said data from you if you're dead or comatose. Now hold still while I finish dressing your wound." Even after so many years, the Leaf Village were still at war with the Sound Village. They were locked in a stale mate at the moment, where neither village had any advantage over the other. The smallest mistake or opportunity could mean victory or defeat. Maybe this capture could prove to be a turning point in the war...

After all, Tayuya was no normal shinobi. She belonged to Orochimaru's feared elite force. Only the most skilled and loyal were allowed to be part of the small, but deadly group. Not only did the members possess great skills and eternal loyalty, they all also had curse seals which they could use to greatly boost their powers. Many members were part of clans and bloodlines possessing special abilities and jutsus, making the group even more dangerous. With the help of the curse seal, one single member of the elite force could single-handedly wipe out a small Konoha group. Konoha had taken much caution in how to fight the elite sound shinobis. Thankfully, there were so few of them. However, when encountered, casualties were to be expected among the Leaf Shinobis. Each time one was killed there was a relief, but Orochimaru was always looking for new, powerful subjects to replace the losses. With its kill ratio of 90, only the strongest survived the of the seal.

"Alright, I'm done." Shikamaru nodded as the last bit of bandage was applied to her wound. "That should suffice until a trained medic can asses the damage. Now then, time to move you out of my house." Tayuya however was far from cooperative. She was not going to be moved that easily. She started yelling so loudly that it nearly broke her voice, almost awaking the neighbourhood.

"Tsch! Make me! AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS STUPID SHADOW BIND TECHNIQUE I SHALL…" Suddenly Tayuya stopped yelling in mid sentence. In a split second, her flushed face drained of all colour, rendering her in an uncanny appearance to that of a ghost come back from the other side. Her eyes rolled back behind their lids and she fell forward. Shikamaru darted out and swooped his arms around her upper body until her frail, limp figure before she could hit the floor and gently lowered her to the floor. The combination of blood loss, starvation and lack of sleep had finally taken its toll on Tayuya's body and mind; she had been brought to her limits, and then the line had been crossed.

_What a weird girl…_

With a confused look, Shikamaru stared at the motionless body of Tayuya lying on his kitchen floor. At first he thought she was faking it to trick him into lowering his guard, but when he carefully stepped closer to examine her; he realized that she actually was passed out for real. She was still breathing quietly. Gazing around the room, Shikamaru sought any clues that could help him with this odd situation. He could do what everyone else would have done, go and get backup; however that was out of the question, considering that his phone had been disabled. It was far too risky to leave Tayuya alone in the house in case she would suddenly wake up. He sighed as he understood that the best thing to do was of course the most troublesome one; to carry her to the station by himself. It was only a couple of blocks away anyway.

"Why did you have to come here? How troublesome of you…"

After kneeling down by her motionless bodies' side Shikamaru sighed wearily and shook his head while observing the features at her face. Reaching out with his hand, he brushed away some strands of red hair away from the back of her neck, revealing what he had expected to be there all the time. The black curse seal was still imprinted upon Tayuya's slender neck. She could have escaped his technique by using it, but for some reason she had chosen not to. There were several ways to escape the holding of his shadow neck binding technique. The first was to break free by brute strength, which was only possible by shinobis with inhuman strength. The other was overpowering the chakra powering the shadow jutsu with a stronger amount of chakra. With the help of the curse seal, it was possible to do to the latter.

_It doesn't make any sense to me. My jutsus have been overpowered by sound members before. I guess she must have been too exhausted to use it...But I can't help but to think that was not the case._

Security precautions had to be taken care of before she could be moved. Using some sturdy ropes, Shikamaru bound her hands and feet together to lower the risks in case she awakened while being carried to the station. Still being cautious, he rolled her over on her back and put his arms beneath her thighs and back. With a grunt, he kneeled back up, lifting her up from the floor, letting her head rest on his shoulder. She was lighter than he expected; despite her malnourished appearance, she weighed even less than Shikamaru had first guessed

"Right then, let's get this over with before I collapse from exhaustion too." He mumbled to himself, stifling yet another pervasive yawn.

As he began walking down the dark streets of Konoha carrying the girl, the only company he met along the way was the lit streetlights and dark houses. Most civilians were sleeping; no patrolling Leaf Shinobis were seen either. It seemed Shikamaru was the only one awake in the village. Yet for some reason he was glad that he did not meet any other people; he did not fancy the awkward questions that would no doubt be posed by curious passerby. Seeing him carrying around an unconscious person in the middle of the night would certainly cause attention. Carrying her felt odd for Shikamaru, for this was the first time he had ever held a girl in this fashion.

_Well, I certainly hope I never have to drape an unconscious thief out of my house again _he thought to himself.

"I don't know what you have been through…but the Police better give you a change of clothes and a shower. No offence, but you really smell!" He chuckled quietly to himself, knowing that no one but him could only hear. After only a few minutes of walking, the police station came into sight. Reaching the entrance only took another a couple of minutes, which was a relief; Shikamaru's arm muscles were burning from the extra strain of the night. Using one of his feet he opened the door and stepped inside the station and into the reception room, careful not to bump Tayuya's legs or head into the door frame.

In the reception sat one familiar person: the Chuunin Kamizuki Izumo. He appeared very bored and sleepy as he rested on a chair behind the desk. Not much used to happen late at night. Hearing the door swing open, Izumo rubbed his tired eyes and looked at the Nara Chuunin who entered the station, carrying a motionless young woman in his arms.

"Nara Shikamaru? What are you doing here in the middle of the night? And who do you have with you? Another teenage girl who has gotten a bit too much alcohol at a party?" Izumo's tired smile and chuckle vanished as his blurry vision focused on the unconscious girl in Shikamaru's arms; he gasped as he recognized the clothes she was wearing. They were the same clothes all members of Orochimaru's elite force wore, something he had seen plenty of times in combat against the Sound. "Huh? Isn't that…"

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded. "She's a Sound nin." He approached a nearby bench by the reception and gently laid her down. Izumo quickly appeared at his side. Together they looked down at her, not knowing what to say or do next. This was truly an awkward situation. A member of the Orochimaru's elite force had never been captured alive before because they had either been killed by Leaf Shinobis, or taken their own lives to prevent capture.

"What is she doing here? How did she get past our security?"

"She broke into my house, but I'm not sure why. It seemed she was looking to steal food and medical supplies."

"How odd. Was she alone?" The question struck Shikamaru like an anvil. He cursed himself for having not thought about it earlier. Was Tayuya acting alone or was she working together with more of her people? Had she come unaccompanied to the village while the rest of her team mates waited outside the village perimeter? From what Intel he had gathered so far from her, the possibility of her being alone was much was much more likely than being together with someone.

"Looks like it." He answered, hoping that he would not regret it later.

"Well there isn't much we can do at this moment. I'll send out a couple of scout teams to check the area near the village for anything suspicious We'll put her in a cell, let a medic check her wounds, and inform Hokage-Sama in the morning. She nearly beat one of us to a bloody pulp after we disturbed her in the middle of the night." He reminisced with a grimace. Walking back to the desk, Izumo pressed a button on a control panel and talked quietly into it, ordering someone to come to the reception room.

"I understand. I just wanted to get her over here and let you handle the rest."

"We will inform you tomorrow. Expect to be called over here to give us a report about tonight's events. I'm sure Hokage-Sama will be interested to hear all this."

Shikamaru sighed out in relief. He thought he was going to have to write another report and talk to the village's leader, Godaime Hokage Tsunade right now, but thankfully he would soon finally get his sleep. A door on the other side of the room opened up and in stepped two Leaf Chuunins, brandishing the Konoha Police Force symbol printed on their shoulders and backs. Izumo gestured for them to take the unconscious girl to a cell. They grabbed Tayuya's limbs and carried her away into another room, down a long a corridor where the prison cells where located. All of the cells were made of concrete and steel and protected by anti-chakra barriers that prevented shinobi prisoners from using chakra to escape. As the door to the corridor got closed, Shikamaru lost sight of Tayuya, but somehow he felt he would see her again soon enough…

"Well then if I'm not needed any more then, I would then like to go home and sleep." Shikamaru was already slowly moving backwards towards the exit. If he could not go to sleep soon, he would probably collapse from fatigue just like Tayuya had earlier. He yawned deeply again. His eyes felt so tired that they were itching.

"I won't stop you. You did well by bringing her here, Shikamaru." With that said, Shikamaru turned around and left the building and headed back towards his house. The air was starting to get a little chilly as goose bumps appeared on Shikamaru's skin. It was so troublesome to know that he had to walk all the way back to his house, but a warm bed was calling for him. The kitchen would have to wait until tomorrow. No way in hell he would clean it up in the middle of the night as he would probably only make it worse. Cleaning was hardly his best skill, along with other activities he referred as 'women's work'.

"Out of all buildings and houses in this village, she picked the one I live in ..." Shikamaru sighed weakly in discomfort. His legs feel like they were made of concrete.

For the second time today, Shikamaru reached his home. He opened door which never got locked after he left it to carry Tayuya, and headed straight into his room. Inside he took off his clothes until only his black boxers remained, and he nearly collapsed onto the bed. Sighing loudly in relief, it felt like he had finally come to heaven. His body nearly thanked him personally for the rest it was going to receive. It only took a couple of minutes for his mind and body to drift into a deep sleep. His last thought was he should check up on Tayuya's status sometime the next day.

End of chapter.

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There. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. As always, if you have any questions or comments, you may tell me personally. You can contact me on AIM: Netescaper2k 

Jutsu guide: For every chapter that involves the usage of any type of jutsus, either canon or original, I will give a short explanation of the technique at the bottom of the chapter. In this chapter, only one single technique was used.

_**Kage kubi shibari no jutsu**__ (Shadow Neck bind technique) A shadow technique used by Nara clan members. The technique is used to both immobilize and/or kill enemies. The Nara stretches and attaches his shadow to the enemy's shadow. Shadowy arms will then rise beneath the enemy and wrap themselves around the victim's body. These arms can also be used to strangle the enemy to death. The most common ways to escape the grip is to overpower it with strength, or with a more powerful amount of chakra._


	2. Chapter 2: Revealations

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews I got. I really appreciate them all.

Here you have the second chapter of my story, and I hope you will like it as much as the first one, if not more. I'll say that in this chapter you will learn a few small things about Tayuya, but trust me when I say that I'm saving the bigger stuff for later on in the story. You will eventually learn a lot about who she is, her past, her new skills and techniques.

I put in a lot of effort and time in for this chapter. I guess I could have released it earlier, but I have been drowning in school work. Also, I had some problems with writers block. I went through this chapter too many times, looking for stuff to polish, edit, add and improve. I guess I feel even now that I've released this chapter, I'm not 100 satisfied with it, but didn't want you to wait too long.

Anyway, on with the show!

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Shadows and Melodies 

By Blood Shinobi

Chapter 2: Revelations

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The thick metal bars of the prison window did little to stop the bright morning sun rays to shine through and land directly onto the closed eyelids of the sleeping girl inside the cell, waking her up from her deep slumber. Tayuya cursed quietly, grunting in annoyance and put up her hand to cover her weary eyes from the stinging sun light. Slowly, she raised her upper body to sit up, and groaned in discomfort. Her whole body felt heavy and stiff, as if she was made of stone. The blood within the veins in her head throbbed heavily, causing a painful headache. Suddenly, she hissed and jolted slightly from a strong wave of pain emitted from the lower left side of her stomach. Her arm reacted reflexively by putting her palm onto the aching area, feeling something soft was tied around her waist beneath the dirty and torn shirt. Lifting her light grey cloth up, as well as the black one beneath it, she saw a blood stained bandage covering a half fresh stab wound. The sight of the wound and the bandages made her remember the events from last night; how she had been wounded, then later bandaged. 

_Right…those BASTARDS stabbed me last night! They actually almost succeeded in killing me! Then HE patched me up?!? _

Having been helped by one of the few individuals she hated the most felt like a big insult to her, a taunt and disgrace to her existence. In a sheer, short lived anger, she hit the wall with her clenched fist, only to moan again as pain surged through her wound again, as well as her aching fist. She didn't put much attention to the pain though, and thought instead about her current whereabouts.

The walls were made of solid concrete. The metal bars blocking the small window, and the steel door acting as the entrance to the cell made it obvious that she was not meant to leave; she was in a prison cell. The last she remembered before she had fainted yesterday in the Nara house was she was inside the Leaf Village. Putting the facts together, it was obvious what had happened to her.

_Damn it…I've been imprisoned in Konoha! That's my luck…_

Still feeling too weak to stand up, Tayuya laid herself carefully down again and sighed deeply. There was nothing better for her to do than to recover her strength as much as possible. The prison bed with its fresh, white sheets was in fact more comfortable than the half rotten, moth eaten mattress she used to sleep on in the sound village. At least inside the cell she did not have to worry about being ambushed again by her attackers. But that didn't necessarily mean she was safe. She was a shinobi of the Sound, and the relationship between them and the Leaf was not very good. She knew it was only a matter of time before the Leaf would come to interrogate her.

* * *

At the same time, Shikamaru was doing his best to snap out of his morning tiredness. Last night he had gone to bed too late, and woken up too early; an uncomfortable sleep schedule for someone who liked to sleep through the whole morning whenever possible. His lower legs were not fully rested, and still ached slightly from the overwork he had done from the previous day. A leg massage felt very appealing. 

Wearing only his black boxers and morning robe, he entered the kitchen without bothering to flick on the ceiling lights for the reason that the sun shining through the large kitchen window was lighting up the room well enough. What the sun light revealed though only made Shikamaru groan and palm his face. When he had came home last night he had felt so tired he simply did not had the energy or motivation to clean up the mess Tayuya had caused. There were still broken glasses pieces and kitchen tools scattered across the floor, as well as blood stains that had coagulated hours ago. The whole room looked to be a crime scene of a recent murder.

"Damn you! Even when you're not here you continue being troublesome to me." He blamed Tayuya.

As much as Shikamaru wanted to procrastinate the cleaning of the kitchen, he knew well enough he had no choice but to clean it as soon as possible before leaving the house. Since he had been home alone for a week, and was going to be for an additional two more, he had to show his parents as well as his friends he was capable of taking care of himself and the house. Having the home for himself had both its reward and drawbacks, as he could use the family's stereo to listen to whatever music he wanted. He could wear whatever clothes he desired, and not worry about either of his parents scolding him for the smallest reasons. Some of the bad things though were he had to make all the house jobs himself! He had to cook his own food, wash his clothes and clean the various rooms that could be found in the house of the Nara family.

Admittedly, it sometimes felt a little empty and lonely without his parents when he could not talk to them face to face. Everyday, after his parents left the village to go on a well earned vacation, his mother phoned him every evening to make sure that everything was alright with her son, and nag him a bit not to forget the usual important things, such as lock the doors and turn off the lights when leaving the house. Sometimes he was accompanied by friends, but that was not really the same sort of social contact. Even though Shikamaru preferred being alone he was hardly an outsider who only wanted to keep for himself. He knew well enough the importance of friendship. He and his parents were not always at best of terms and yet he truly loved them as much as they loved him. It was in times like these that he realized how much they meant for him.

The glass pieces on the floor were easy to pile up and be put away in a trashcan with the help of a broom and a small one-handed plastic shovel. Yet, he was careful with where he was placing his naked feet to not get any cuts. The kitchen tools and tableware were even easier and faster to pick up as they only needed to be grabbed up by hand and be put back in their corresponding drawers and cupboards. The last job however was of course the most troublesome one; the blood on the floor required a lot more time and effort from the lazy Shikamaru. Since the blood had coagulated into an almost solid puddle, he needed to use large amounts of solvent and scrub with a brush, along with an almost endless supply of toilet paper and even sacrifice a towel that would never be clean again. It took over twenty minutes alone to get the blood away without leaving any traces left for anyone to notice.

"Tsch! It's a wonder you didn't did bleed to death last night." He gave Tayuya one last verbal complaint, even though she was far out of hearing. With the kitchen restored, he could eat his breakfast in relative peace.

* * *

After having eaten a regular breakfast and done a few other necessary house works, Shikamaru could at last leave the house. He was dressed in his usual outfit for his job as a Shinobi of the Leaf, which consisted of a pair of pants and shirt made of soft, black fabric; and with a standard dark green shinobi flak jacket on top of his torso. He began making his way towards the shinobi headquarters to report for his daily duties. 

The village was beginning to come to life with civilians filling the streets, salesmen opening their shops, and employees going to their work. Along the way he also passed by young academy students who were on their way to the academy. A few of them as well several other familiar faces greeted the young Nara as they passed by him. In the most outer edge of his field of view he saw the police station of Konoha, and it reluctantly reminded him of someone.

_Hmm…maybe I should pay HER a quick visit…_

The female person he was thinking of was none other than Tayuya. As he still had plenty of time left to sign himself in for his job, he could in the mean time check her up. Yesterday, the police chuunin Izumo had mentioned Shikamaru was going to be contacted later for further questioning. So far, he hadn't received any notifications, so he could go to the station instead and see if he was needed for anything regarding Tayuya. Turning straight to the right, he walked up a short set of stone stair and approached the durable double doors of the police station, which were opened up by a police jounin who was leaving the building in a hurry, but was kind enough to keep the door open for Shikamaru who expressed his gratitude with a weak smile.

The police station of Konoha was responsible for dealing with internal security, as well as upholding law and order within the village.

Again, the person being responsible for handling the reception was Izumo, who was busy typing on a computer keyboard. Hearing the front door open, he raised his gaze from the screen and smirked at Shikamaru. "Oh? Who would have thought to see you here again so shortly?" Just like Shikamaru, he appeared to be more awake than from last night. Clearing his throat, he acted more serious. "Good that you're here though. Hokage-Sama has been informed about the intrusion of the sound Kunoichi. She has ordered you to write a report about what happened last night and give it to her personally before the end of your shift."

Shikamaru sighed at the news. Now he had two reports to write before the end of his work. He would need to sacrifice his valuable lunch hour to be able to finish it in time.

"Has the prisoner revealed anything?" Shikamaru asked curiously, and the police chuunin shook his head.

"We shall interrogate her later, after she has eaten something, I guess." Strangely, while talking, the older chuunin broke eye contact and rolled as like in embarrassment. It looked like there was something he was not saying.

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru asked, who was fairly good at picking up odd behaviours from people.

"Emm….well…By the time you brought her to the station, I was so exhausted I forgot to put her in the prisoner registry. Since she wasn't in the registry, she didn't get anything to eat or drink this morning. The cooking staff served breakfast to all prisoners over thirty minutes ago, except to the sound kunoichi. I shouldn't leave the desk unmanned, and it would be a bit embarrassing for me to let someone else who works in this building to give her food because of my sloppiness. So, would you please give her breakfast for me?"

"I can do that." Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "Just make sure to put her in the prisoner list this time."

The police officer nodded and returned his attention to the computer screen to do his task. As lazy as Shikamaru was, he never slacked when it came to doing his duties as a shinobi of the Leaf. Despite that Izumo had slacked with his job, Shikamaru didn't say anything about it, as he thought it was not worth it. Izumo was only human after all, and all humans made mistakes, including shinobis. However, one had to be careful to not do any while lives were at risk. As Shikamaru was about to leave the room and head for the kitchen, the older chuunin had one last question for him.

"Wait, do you happen to know her name? Otherwise we've to call her by Prisoner ID number."

"Her name is…Tayuya. Her second name however I don't know." It never occurred to Shikamaru that he would say her name a second time in his life. Hopefully there would not be a third.

* * *

A short moment later, Shikamaru entered a long corridor, holding a tray with food in his hands. The food consisted of a freshly baked bread roll, a bowl of steaming hot soup, and an onigiri rice ball. The hallway was almost 200 feet long with over a dozen of locked and labelled steel doors on each side. Stepping up in front of the door with the label ´2-2E´, Shikamaru looked through the barred window in the door, seeing Tayuya who was still on her bed. 

"Oi, breakfast is here!" He tapped the solid door with his foot. The only response he got was a weak groan in pain as she moved to sit up, still clutching her aching wound. As she saw Shikamaru's face through the door window, her face expressed both anger as well as pain. She was so weak she could not even bother throw another verbal insult at him.

Not wanting to cause trouble to her or himself any further, seeking only to get his task over with, Shikamaru knelt down by the door and opened a simple lock that kept a small rectangular shaped hole shut for food trays to be pushed into cells without putting the prison guard in danger.

As soon as the tray was pushed into the cell, Tayuya lunged herself off from her bed like a starving animal towards the food. Quickly and hungrily she began devouring it as if it was the last edible thing in the world. Most of the bread and rice she swallowed without chewing and didn't bother enjoying the taste and aroma. Instead of using the plastic spoon to drink the bowl of soup, she lifted it up with both hands and poured the content down her throat so fast some drops were spilled from the corner of her mouth. It took less than one minute for the tray to become completely empty; Tayuya didn't even let any bread crumbs go to waste from the floor. It was a surprise she didn't vomit all up after having eaten barely anything for days.

_And I thought Chouji was gluttonous…_ Shikamaru had never seen a girl eat like that before. The girls he knew in the village either ate normally, or too little to not risk getting fat. It seemed like a typical girl thing to self starve in order to boost ones self-image.

The fact she had eaten all her food so rapidly was not because she liked eating tasty food, but for the reason she was starving! For days she had eaten just enough to keep herself moving and alive, and it had begun to take its toll on her body by greatly reducing her stamina and strength. For the first time in a week, Tayuya's belly got filled with fresh and hot food which did a good job to satisfy her hunger and fill her with renewed energies.

After only a few minutes, it looked like a portion of strength was slowly returning to her. Her somewhat pale face regained some of its living colours. Just as he was about to leave Tayuya without either of them trading a single word to each other, taking the tray with him, he stopped in his tracks as he heard her ask an odd question to him

"What time is it?"

"Hmm?" Shikamaru frowned a bit in confusion and stepped back to the closed door. From a nearby clock hanging on a wall, he could see the current time. "It's almost half past seven, as if that matters to you. Why you worry about the time when you're in prison?"

"Hm… damn I'm one and a half hour late…I should be fine though." Tayuya whispered to herself, she put both her hands into her pockets to look for something. Silently she cursed, as the pockets were empty, and moved to look through the small leather pouch located behind her waist, only to discover it was gone. She cursed again, this time louder and turned around to look at Shikamaru with a stern look in her eyes. "Where is it?!"

"Where's what?"

"Don't play stupid with me! Where's my plastic jar?! Where are my pills? I need them! Where is it?" The question was asked again with a more commanding tone. With each sentence being yelled out, the red colour in her face intensified. Shikamaru tried to think of why she was becoming so upset all of a sudden. She had mentioned pills, but what kind?

"I…I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

"Then I've no choice but to take them back by force! Do not think a simple steel door can stop me!" Getting into position, Tayuya began forming hand seals to prepare a powerful jutsu strong enough to break through multiple steel doors. Shikamaru however calmly watched her without even blinking in surprise. "Ninpou…" Tayuya stopped there and became silent for a second. "What the…" To her surprise, she could not mould or control her chakra even though she felt its presence within her body.

Shikamaru couldn't help but to smirk a little to Tayuya's failure.

"Did you really think we would put you in a normal cell? You're no normal prisoner. You're a shinobi with chakra after all, and that's why we placed you in a special type of cells. Outside the walls of your cells we have placed several seals that create a field that completely blocks your chakra circulation. Pretty nifty, huh?" His grin made the anger and frustration grow within Tayuya.

"Tsch! For fucks sake!" Closing her eyes, she concentrated harder, desperately trying to use her chakra, to no avail. A couple of sweat drops dripped down from her face. Weakness and nausea threatened to overcome her body and mind. For a short moment it looked like she was going to faint again like she had yesterday, but managed to remain standing on a pair of weak legs, panting already in exhaustion.

"Easy, easy." Shikamaru warned her for her recklessness. "Your body is still feeling weak. You need more rest." The nausea didn't go away that quickly, forcing Tayuya to calm herself and sit down on the bed again. Seeing a former enemy in such bad state, like she was only a shadow of her former self, caused Shikamaru to feel a bit of pity for her. Was this really the same enemy he had fought so long ago?

_She looks so lost, so torn, so exhausted. What has she possible been through? Something is really strange with her…_

As much as he disliked the older girl for being so loudmouthed and rude, it was hard for him to simply stand and watch without doing anything to help. He could not help her with the pain, but perhaps he could do something else.

"Hm… what did you mean when you mentioned your pills? What are they exactly? All your possessions were taken earlier while you were unconscious." Wanting to yell and curse again, Tayuya had to hold back her anger and keep herself calm to not risk fainting again. Still sitting on the bed, she spoke up, this time with a quiet yet, tired voice.

"They…they're my medicine. I was meant to take a dose about an hour ago. I must take them as soon as possible. If I don't…then it can become very unpleasant for me." To hear the word medicine being mentioned made Shikamaru stand silent for a few seconds to rethink the situation.

_Is she sick? If that's true, then I wonder what she's suffering from..._

"I'll see what I can do. But I can't promise anything." With that said, Shikamaru closed the small viewing access in the prison door before moving down the hall. The sounds of his footsteps gradually faded until silence took over in the corridor, save for a nearby humming fan spinning in the ceiling.

"Please hurry…" Tayuya whispered, out of hearing for anyone.

* * *

Walking back to the reception, Shikamaru asked Izumo about the item Tayuya had asked for. "Alright. I gave her the food and she ate it all. She should be ready for interrogation soon." Shikamaru stated. "However, I need to request something from you. I would like to have a look at her belongings." 

Normally Shikamaru would have probably been not allowed to see her things, as only authorized personnel could. Since Shikamaru had done him a favour, Izumo thought he should return the kindness and do an exception. It was no biggy anyway.

Izumo left the desk and went into a nearby, secured room where prisoners' personal belongings were kept; some of it was evidence. A minute later he came out, carrying a small labelled wooden box in his hands. He put the box down onto the desk between him and Shikamaru. At first sight, it contained typical items most shinobis of the world normally carried around, such as sharp kunai and shuriken, scrolls and smoke bombs. The sharp weapons brought a weak smile to Shikamaru's lips.

_So you finally decided to use other weapons than your flute?_

In their previous battle years ago, Tayuya's lack of weaponry was one of the reasons she had been defeated. It seemed she had learned from her mistake. It also made him wonder briefly what else she had learned, how much her skills had evolved. He had fought her once, and hoped dearly he would not have to do so again. She was a very troublesome opponent back then.

In the corner of the box, partially hidden beneath a pair of scrolls, Shikamaru saw what he was looking for. Reaching down with his hand, he picked up a small plastic jar full of tiny, white pills. The jar was unlabeled though so neither of the shinobis could tell what kind of pills they were.

"Any idea what they are for?" Izumo asked.

"I'm clueless." Shikamaru shrugged. The pills could be poison, vitamins, or maybe Tayuya's supposed medicine. "The red haired sound kunoichi I brought to you last night was asking for her medicine. It looked to be urgent so I went to see if she can receive a dose if necessary. She didn't say though why she needs them, or what they are." Even prisoners of war had the right to eat, drink, sleep and be given necessary medicine. Such was the way of the Leaf.

"They might be poisonous. There's only one medical ninja in this village skilled enough to tell what they are without wasting time on sending them to the chemistry area for analyzing."

"Hm?" Shikamaru frowned at Izumo's odd statement. "What are you trying to say?"

"Well, Shikamaru, if you ask me, you have two choices. Either you give them to one of our chemical analysers for them to run a test on the pills to see what they are; it will take a couple of hours though to get the answers. If you believe it's really urgent… you can try asking the greatest medical shinobi in the world… Hokage-Sama herself."

Tsunade-Sama had her good and bad days. The question was, would it be worth the trouble to disturb her? He shot a glance at another nearby watch. He had less than half an hour left to sign up for duty. Coming late was not appreciated by his superiors. His eyes went back and forth between the jar in his hand and the clock on the wall; then a short look at Izumo, and down the corridor where Tayuya was waiting.

_These things better be VERY important to you…_

"I'm on my way. I hope to be back soon." Shikamaru waved good bye to Izumo as he left the building and went towards another one, a house with the Hokage symbol on it.

* * *

Inside a fairly big office, behind a sturdy wooden desk sat the leader of the Leaf village, the fifth Hokage Tsunade, who was currently occupied with going through annoying paperwork. She sighed to herself, leaning her head on her palm. Having the title of Hokage had its ups and downs. She possessed the power to do things right for her country and village, and she also had a limited political influence on other countries. However, her job involved a lot of unwanted responsibility, such as going through tons of paper works. Many things could be handled by her jounins and chuunins, but for a few occasions there were situations only The Hokage herself could take care of. 

The pile of papers never stopped growing. If it wasn't for her friend and secretary Shizune, she would drown in her own work and be burned out in no time. Nevertheless, she was still happy for having her position, and would never dream of quitting until reaching old age. Luckily, she had many years left before she would have to worry about assigning a replacement. Her concentration on the papers was suddenly interrupted as someone knocked carefully on the door to the Hokage's office.

"You may enter." In stepped the Nara Chuunin, Shikamaru, who approached, bowing to her before stating his intention.

"I'm terribly sorry for disturbing you in your work, Hokage-Sama. If you wouldn't mind, it would be nice of you to identify these pills. They're for the recently captured sound prisoner, but we don't know what they are. Apparently she needs it as soon as possible and we might not have enough time to run a test on them."

He expected Tsunade to yell at him for disturbing her for such small thing. Instead of responding in words, she gestured with her hand to tell him to give her the jar, without taking away her gaze from the book in her lap. Taking hold of the jar in her hands and flipping the lid open with her thumb, she brought it close to her face. Her nostrils took a couple of short sniffs, and then a deep one. She followed by placing a pill on her tongue to examine the taste, pondering heavily, yet quickly. It didn't take much thinking for her to recognize both the feint smell and taste from the pill, and identify its purpose.

"I see…" The woman spat the pill out in a nearby trash can standing by her feet, then closed the lid of the jar and tossed it to Shikamaru who caught it."There's nothing dangerous about these pills." She explained. "You can safely give them to the prisoner. Now if you excuse me, there's a lot of paperwork to be done."

With that said, she sighed and took a large bunch of papers in her arms and turned her chair around. Shikamaru nodded and turned to leave the room, but stopped just below the door frame. "Just one more thing please…what exactly are these things?" No matter the situation he thought it was good being well informed. Knowledge could prove to be a highly effective weapon when used wisely.

"Antiepileptic medicine." With her nearly endless medical knowledge, she could identify thousands of different chemicals, both harmless and deadly ones. Recognizing the anti-epilepsy was a simple task. "Either she's using them as drugs… or she's suffering from epilepsy. I recommend you give them to her as soon as possible anyway. An epileptic seizure is very unpleasant to watch. We have to run a test on her later to find out whether she's sick or not."

_Epilepsy?_

Shikamaru had heard the word before and knew the very basics of the sickness, but that's was it. He had never seen it, or met anyone who has it. Wanting to ask Tsunade a couple of more questions regarding Tayuya and her possible sickness, he had found out what he had come for, and thought it would be best to leave. Just as he was about to close the door behind him, the Hokage's voice gave one last instruction to the Nara Chuunin.

"Shikamaru…give her two pills only. We don't want her to try and take an overdose in order to kill herself. Take the jar to the medical cabinet and tell the nurses who work there to give the prisoner two new pills every twelve hours until we know for sure whether she's epileptic or not." He grunted quietly in response to acknowledge her order. What he didn't notice though was how the Hokage was smiling weakly to herself. The young Nara was certainly acting a little out of character.

_That boy almost never cares about girls on his free time; And yet he bandaged a wounded girl who broke into his house, then carried her to the police station, and now he is helping her with getting her medicine back. That's a lot of help to someone he doesn't even know, and who happens to be an enemy_

Normally she didn't like to be disturbed for small things, but Tsunade was a caring woman and didn't want to have a bad conscious for not letting a young girl have her medicine. Plus, it felt if only for a mere minute, pleasant to take her attention away from the boring papers.

* * *

Shikamaru made his way back to Tayuya's cell while holding the rattling plastic jar in his hand. His mind was working with absorbing the new information which had given him to him recently. 

_A shinobi with epilepsy? That's new to me. _

"I'm back." Shikamaru arrived outside the cell. "I guess you were looking for these?" He announced, by raising his hand holding the jar, but took a quick step backwards as Tayuya's arm lunged out past the small window of the prison door in an attempt to snatch the jar from him. Her flailing finger tips were only inches away from touching him.

"Give them to me! Now!" Her voice sounded almost desperate from the other side of the door.

"Take it easy, geez! You could've told me from the beginning that you needed them because you were sick." Groaning, he told her with a standard, yet commanding tone to move back to the wall.

When it came to getting the pills back, Tayuya surprisingly turned obedient by without delay taking a few steps back, not even bothering to curse which seemed to be a bad habit for her. There, she waited eagerly for her 'reward', her body fidgeting in impatience. Shikamaru didn't want to hand them to her in her hand, for he had no back up with him and could not even open the door; so he decided to carefully toss a pair of pills through the window. Swiftly, Tayuya stepped forward and picked them up, and swallowed them both with a single gulp, breathing out in relief.

On the other side of the cell door, Shikamaru remained quiet and kept his arms crossed, as if waiting for her to say something. In fact, he was the one who first broke the awkward silence between them.

"Hey now, I've patched you up, carried you, given you food, told you the time, given you medicine, and you still can't at least thank me even once?"

" Well thank you…" Tayuya spoke with a bit of sarcasm before adding another word to finish her sentence. "…asshole!"

"Why do I even bother? Shikamaru palmed his face and groaned. "You girls are all the same. You're all selfish, bossy, loud mouthed brats."

"I knew it since the first time I saw you. You're gay!" she retorted back at him.

"I…Eh, never mind." He was about to reply back to her taunt when he realized she was only pushing his buttons to annoy him. "I won't waste my time having word games with you. As far as I'm concerned, you and I are done with each other and I'll never see you again. You've given me enough trouble as it is." With that said, Shikamaru left without hearing any more snappy responds from her. He had already wasted enough time on helping a girl he really didn't like. Already he regretted helping such self-centred and unfriendly person. Now was the time for him to catch up with his real work. There were only minutes left, and he burst into a jog.

* * *

The hours passed seemingly quickly. The time of the day went from morning to late afternoon. By the moment Shikamaru returned to the Hokage's office, the sun was only moments away from dropping down behind the horizon, and begin to gradually cover the village in temporal darkness. In his hands he held a couple of papers filled by him. The papers were short, yet detailed reports from his mission yesterday and about Tayuya's sudden break in into his house last night. 

There was a sudden knock on the door behind him. In stepped a young woman with short, black hair and a matching robe. She was Shizune, a skilled medical shinobi, and one of Tsunade's closest friends. She was one of the few individuals who were allowed to call the Hokage by her first name instead of her title.

"Tsunade-Sama! A problem has risen regarding the female sound prisoner." It didn't take much thinking for Shikamaru to understand that the assistant was talking about Tayuya, as she was the only female sound shinobi in the prison. To hear she was causing trouble didn't surprise him the slightest either. He had met her three times in his life so far and each time she had been nothing other than problem! Causing trouble and being rude were the only things she was good at, it seemed.

Shizune leaned closer to whisper into the Hokage's ear. Shikamaru was not an eavesdropper, yet he could not prevent his ears from picking up a few words the assistant was whispering.

"Kurenai….genjutsu….prisoner…" Whatever Shizune was informing Tsunade, it made the Hokage widen her brown eyes in surprise.

"Oh really? That's… that's quite astonishing."

"What's wrong? If I may ask." The Nara chuunin politely wondered. The Hokage didn't mind sharing the information.

"The prisoner…she's fully resisting Kurenai's interrogation genjutsu." Now Shikamaru understood what had surprised Tsunade, for it amazed him just as much, if not more. All shinobis in the Leaf village knew Yuuhi Kurenai was the best jounin in genjutsu. She was even better than the legendary copy ninja Kakashi himself, as long as he didn't use his Sharingan. The only two people in the village who could outmatch her skills were two of the even more legendary trio known as the Sannins, Jiraiya and Tsunade, due to their greater skills which had come from over fourty years of experience. And now, a mere teenage girl had resisted a genjutsu from a master? From their encounter several years ago Shikamaru remembered Tayuya was highly skilled in the arts of illusionary techniques.

With both a sigh and a grunt, Tsunade stood up and moved to the door. "A bump in the road…but nothing we can't handle. It seems I have to take the interrogation into my own hands." Leaving Shikamaru behind, the Hokage and her assistant left the office together and began making their way to the prison inside the police station.

_Well I guess the day is over for my part…_ Not bothering to go after them, he only desired to go home, eat a hot dinner, and have a refreshing shower.

* * *

Outside Tayuya's cell, leaned the crimson eyed jounin, Yuuhi Kurenai against the cold wall, appearing fatigued, as she was panting from a tiresome genjutsu interrogation with Tayuya. One could see driblets of sweat running down her face. To no avail, the woman had struggled gallantly for hours with determination to succeed with her assignment. As she saw the Hokage approach her from the other side of the corridor, she immediately straightened herself up and instantly wiped away all signs of weariness. 

"I worked on her for five straight hours without even coming close to breaching her mind. I'm sorry, Hokage-Sama. That girl is… strangely skilled in seeing through Genjutsu. I've never met anyone like her in a long time." Kurenai apologized with her head bowed in disgrace, feeling a bit of shame for having failed the interrogation. Tsunade simply smiled and patted the younger woman's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Kurenai-San, you did your best. Don't feel bad about it. Sooner or later, no matter how powerful we are, we eventually fight someone who's stronger. You may go and rest now."

"Yes, Hokage-Sama. Thank you." Nodded Kurenai, and returned Tsunade's smile, and bowed again before leaving the corridor. The encouraging words from the Hokage had helped her partially; nevertheless she could definitely need a warm bath, along with some sake and dumplings to make herself feel good again.

Another jounin who guarded the cell door stepped aside to let Tsunade and Shizune move in. The cell they were in was a different one from before, as it didn't have any anti-chakra field seals; a necessary risk. But security cautions had been made.

Tayuya was certainly not in a comfortable position for the reason that her limbs had been tied to a solid chair. Two cloth bands had been tied across her eyes and mouth, blinding and muffling her. To prevent her from also hearing anything, a pair of head phones was placed around her skull that nullified all sound waves to her ears. Sound nins were known to use chakra to greatly increase their hearing. They could hear an ant walk on the ground 100 yards away; a very useful jutsu to spy on a conversation from a distance, or detect approaching enemies.

The reason so many of her senses had been blocked was because it was much easier to interrogate a prisoner with genjutus if they couldn't see, hear or say anything; to disorient them. The idea of genjutsu interrogation was to put an enemy into a state of hypnosis where they could reveal information without remembering anything afterwards. It was a much more humane method instead of using painful psychical torture. Problem was that the prisoner could try to resist the genjutsu. Most of them easily fell to experts like Kurenai. Sometimes however, there were a few who could last for a really long time.

Tayuya was surprisingly calm and was not doing any attempts to break free or protest for her captivity. She simply sat still in her chair and breathed slowly. Other than feeling Shizune's and Tsunade's chakra presences, Tayuya had no idea what else was going on inside the room.

"So this is the girl?" Tsunade examined the younger girl sitting in front of her. "This is the one who gave Kurenai so much trouble? I've heard she was quite violent and foul mouthed earlier." She shot a glance over to her assistant.

"We had to sedate her with a double dose because she was putting up quite a struggle." Shizune recalled how much Tayuya had resisted and protested wildly to her captors when trying to restrain her in the cell. It had taken two men and one woman to keep control of her. One chuunin had lost a tooth from a nasty kick to the face, while another had received a deep bite wound in the arm.

"And now she's calm and quiet like a lamb? Cute isn't? "Tsunade smirked. "It's funny what spectacular uses a little tranquilizing medicine can have when needed. " The smirk disappeared quickly however, and she resumed a more serious expression. It was time for work to be done. She was just as interested as the others to draw out any useful information.

"Alright, let's get this done. I've other work to attend to." Taking a step forward, Tsunade formed her hands into a hand seal.

_Genjutsu: Genosou no udai_ (Illusionary technique: World of Illusion)

As easy like breathing or thinking, she moulded a small piece of her chakra and let it float out from her body towards Tayuya's head with the intention to affect the Tenketsus (chakra pores) found in her eyes, tongue, ears, and most importantly her brain. Genjutsu worked by affecting the enemy's five senses to trick them into seeing, hearing, feeling and believing something that didn't exist; much like a hallucination. It could even put them to sleep. Genjutsu was often underestimated by young shinobis, but it could prove to be more far more effective than Taijutsu and Ninjutsu methods.

The effect was not however what Tsunade had desired, as her chakra dispersed just before Tayuya's head.

_I now see what Kurenai was talking about. Why did my chakra fade away like that?_

The failure didn't stop her however. She formed the same amount of chakra again and repeated her attempt. The result was the same. This time on the other hand, the Hokage sensed how it was in fact the sound girl's own chakra that had neutralized the Hokage's. One out of several ways to escape from Genjutsus was to neutralize the enemy's chakra within one's head with a stronger one. For a Hokage, Tsunade had used only a very tiny fraction of her chakra., so it was no surprise her chakra had failed.

_Both her body and mind haven't fully recovered yet from exhaustion. Plus, she's been injected with a double dose of tranquilizers that dampens both the functionality of her body and mind…and still she can put up such high resistance? This is quite a girl I must say._

For the third time, Tsunade repeated her attempt. Frowning, she took notice of some sort of strange chakra activity going on inside and around Tayuya's head. It didn't seem like Tayuya's defensive actions were of her own accord; it appeared more to be a passive reaction.

_This isn't only because she can see through the technique, something is protecting her from being affected by genjutsus. As soon as I form my chakra to take control of her senses, it feels like some sort of defence automatically rises up to shield her. Is it a clan or a bloodline ability?_

Somehow, Tayuya's own chakra was automatically creating a small, invisible chakra shield around her skull to protect her tenketsus from being affected by intruding chakra. The more chakra Tsunade used, the stronger the shield's strength intensified. Standing behind the Hokage, Shizune could only remain quiet and watch. She was not used to see her mentor and friend struggle so hard with doing a genjutsu interrogation, which was quite a simple thing for someone with the rank and skill of a Kage.

The shield surrounding Tayuya's head had a limit still, and was in the end not able to fully protect her from the Hokage's more powerful chakra as she used too much force for it to withstand. At last, Tayuya's mind sunk into a state of hypnosis where she was both conscious and unconscious at the same time. Her head slumped down. Tsunade breathed out in relief and her assistant smiled.

"No wonder Kurenai couldn't do this. It's almost as if this girl is… " Tsunade suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, and gasped as she had a sudden thought of what Tayuya's possible identification could be. For a short moment, even the powerful Hokage looked nervous as she gazed Tayuya's still body.

_No…that would be very unlikely. Still, I can't count the possibility out. I must do some research._

In her 56 year old life, Tsunade had seen many things, and her battle experience was very large after having participated in more than one of the great shinobi wars. She recalled a particular battle, where she for the first time learned about the automatic anti-genjutsu ability. It was something she wished she would never encounter again. Her suspicions couldn't be simply put aside though. She needed clarification if the girl was who she believed to be. If that was true, it would be necessary to inform the high ranking shinobis in the village about it. Tsunade turned her head towards her assistant.

"Shizune, inform all available jounins in the village to meet me in my office in Three hours!" The Hokage's assistant nodded and left in a hurry to carry out her assigned task. In the mean time, Tsunade returned her attention to the sound girl. It was time to get some questions answered. Why was Tayuya in the Leaf village? Who had attacked her?

* * *

Shizune succeeded very well with her task, and a few hours later, nearly two dozen of Konoha jounins had assembled in the Hokage's office. Well known ones could be found in the room, including the self confident and supportive Taijutsu master Maito Gai who was smiling as always. The beautiful Genjutsu mistress Kurenai, had recovered herself from the failed interrogation attempt and stood next to her close friend and partner Asuma, who was keeping a half lit cigarette in his mouth. The sexy and wild headed Mitarashi Anko was occupied finishing off her late lunch, which consisted of her favourite dangos. And finally, the legendary copy ninja himself Hatake Kakashi, looking bored with his hands in his pockets. It was a lucky coincidence so many elite jounins were available in the village, instead of being busy with a mission, or fighting against the enemy Sound country. There were also several other jounins in the room, and a couple of them were still teenagers. 

All of them were surprised about the Hokage's sudden call to a meeting. Despite their shared curiosity, they all stood silently in attention without breaking the silence and waited for the Hokage's explanation. They could tell how the Hokage was in deep thinking by looking at how she was twirling with a pencil between her fingers and occasionally biting on with her teeth. She was in such deep thinking that she almost forgot that she had company in the room. The answers and information she had gotten out from Tayuya had made her even more worried. When Tsunade noticed that all jounins were ready, she didn't let them wait any longer. Clearing her throat, she spoke up.

"I'm glad so many of you came. I'm sure you're all aware of the fact that we have imprisoned a member of Orochimaru's elite force. What I'm about to say must stay within in this room for I don't want the chuunins and genins to find about my suspicions." Her brown eyes went from left to right to look at the face of each individual to tell them that what she was about to say was something very essential.

"Based on from what information I've gathered about the girl since she was brought in…" Tsunade took a deep breath. For a short moment she looked hesitant whether if she really should share the information she had uncovered. Quickly she realized the importance of doing so, and it was definitely something she should not keep for herself. "I believe she's a member… of the Onizuka clan."

As she had expected, almost in union, most of the older jounins within the room gasped in both shock and surprise to the Hokage's news, while the younger frowned in confusion, not understanding why. "O-Onizuka?" A skilled, yet still young jounin who was new to his rank whispered. The mention of the clan alone was enough for his face to loose its color.

End of Chapter 2

* * *

**AN:** You're probably wondering now, who the hell are the Onizuka, and why are they so feared? Heh, well you have to wait until the third chapter to find out about some basic stuff about them.The more reviews I get, the happier and more motivated I become. 

Jutsu guide

Genjutsu: Genosou no udai: (Illusionary technique: World of Illusion)A genjutsu that puts a victim in a hypnotised state where they are between sleep and conscious. It is used to interrogate prisoners without using psychical torture. The victim will answer any questions being asked, and reveal whatever the user wishes to know. The victim does not remember anything of the process, or what he or she revealed afterwards.

This was the jutsu the stone shinobis used on Rin in the Kakashi Gaiden. But it was not named, so I did it instead.


End file.
